Source documentsMedia Articles - 1980s

Last updated3 December 2002

A $2.3 million fraud and tax evasion case against the Church of Scientology
International has been sent to a national court after a district judge ruled
it was too big for his jurisdiction, court sources said Thursday.

Scientology President Heber Jentzsch and 10 others arrested in a police raid
on a Madrid hotel in November remain free on bail pending formal charging in
connection with the case.

Jentzsch, now in the United States, must report to court officials July 18,
the sources said.

In a 41-page court order issued Wednesday, Madrid 21st District Court Judge
Jose Maria Vazquez Honrubia said his nine-month investigation showed that Scientology
officials in Spain had violated 13 laws.

The Spanish Justice Ministry twice has denied the church status as a religious
entity.

The accusations included massive fraud, document forgery, operating without
a license, illicit association and several public health violations.

Several church-related organizations, including the drug rehabilitation program
Narconon, were named in the court order, which Vazquez Honrubia remanded to
the investigative division of the national court.

The national court must now decide whether to accept the case. If it refuses,
the Supreme Court will decide which court has jurisdiction.

A lawyer for three of the accused said he was pleased the case would be in the
hands of another, "less obsessed judge."

"The accusations reflect religious prejudice and are closer to science
fiction than penal reality," said the lawyer, Luis Rodriguez Ramos.

Lawyers for Jentzsch and the others have filed several complaints of bias against
Vazquez Honrubia, who drew national attention for his handling of the case after
the Nov. 20, 1988 arrests.

Vazquez Honrubia said the investigation was "far from complete."

Police arrested 71 people in the raid, 60 of whom were released by the judge
after questioning. Jentzsch and the others spent 20 days in jail before Vazquez
Honrubia agreed to free them Dec. 10 on a combined bail of $1.1 million.

The court document described the Church of Scientology and its sister organizations
as making up "a multinational dedicated to sales of goods and services,
courses and classes."

The judge said the organizations promise "mental and physical health based
on totally unscientific theories in order to obtain growing sums of money from
captive (adherents)."

The order said the organizations defrauded Spanish tax authorities of the equivalent
of $1.71 million between 1985 and 1988.

It also said investigators received complaints against the groups from 95 people
in 10 Spanish provinces alleging personal and material damages totaling $632,000.

At the time of the arrests, Vazquez Honrubia blocked church bank accounts holding
$900,000.

The Church of Scientology, founded in the 1950s by American science fiction
author L. Ron Hubbard, is based on Hubbard's 1949 book, "Dianetics: The
Modern Science of Mental Health."